The supply crisis has hit Ibiza’s nautical and automotive sectors hard. Stock shortages are already a reality: car dealers have only 20% of the cars they should have in a normal year, while the nautical sector is already warning that orders for small boats for the 2022 summer season will not be delivered on time and will slip to the end of next year or early 2023.
In both sectors, the root of the problem lies in the shortage of supply of processors and chips, with 95% of manufacturing concentrated in China, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore. Many of the factories in these countries halted production during the Covid crisis and are now unable to meet international market orders. The reactivation of demand has choked up the transport sector and created a bottleneck in the ports.
Container costs for Ibiza and Formentera
This situation has caused freight prices to skyrocket. According to Ramón DÃaz, president of the Ibiza and Formentera Yachting Association, bringing a standard container – a 29-tonne load – from China has gone from $2,400 to $12,000 in one year: “The costs have gone up enormously and no supplies are arriving”. DÃaz calculates that this price fluctuation will translate into an “increase of between 4 and 10% in the selling price to the client”.
As for light craft, vessels under eight metres in length are mainly built in Eastern European shipyards, while larger vessels are built in French and Italian shipyards: “In Spain we have lost ground”. This complete dependence on the outside world has led to “total and absolute uncertainty” in the sector.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.